System1 Measures Digital Ad Attention and Response

London-based advertising effectiveness specialist System1 has launched a new service called Test Your Ad Digital, which it says will predict and improve the commercial impact of digital advertising.

The company was founded in 2000 as BrainJuicer by CEO John Kearon and changed its name to System1 early in 2017. It currently has operations in Europe, North America, Brazil, Singapore and Australia. At a recent General Meeting, the company beat off demands for management change by two of its former senior execs.

The new Test Your Ad service measures viewers' emotional responses to creative, assigning a Star Rating based on an ad's ability to drive long-term growth, and a Spike Rating which predicts short-term sales potential. It also reports on 'Digital Fluency', defined as brand recognition within the first two seconds; and includes measures called Attention Trace and Attention Time. The former shows the proportion of people viewing the ad at each second (i.e. those who have not skipped), while the latter gives the average percentage of the ad viewed by the audience as a whole.

The company has already worked with social media site Pinterest on a multi-market validation using creative from global brands to confirm its digital ad metrics are predictive of real business effects, and claims that 'digital ads with an above-average Star Rating yielded 6 times higher brand lift in action intent'. Chief Customer Officer Jon Evans (pictured) says digital formats promote shortened attention spans, requiring a more precise measurement approach, and comments: 'As our research with Pinterest demonstrates, Test Your Ad Digital provides accurate predictions, as well as actionable improvements so advertisers can make the most effective digital ads'.

The tool has its own web home page at www.testyourad.com .